What a treat we have in store for you at our April 16 Chapter meeting: a double-header from Siskiyou County! The Siskiyou Arboretum & Native Plant Nursery is teaming up with Guys Gulch Ecological Reserve to enlighten us about the plants and pollinators that they are working with in their neck of the woods!
Photo taken by Ada Rubin on August 31, 2023.
Our own Shasta Chapter CNPS member Ada Rubin, volunteer lead at the Siskiyou Arboretum & Native Plant Nursery in Yreka, will share a small selection of interesting tidbits about their little volunteer-run native plant nursery, in a presentation entitled, The Siskiyou Arboretum and Native Plant Nursery & Me. Ada became intensely interested in California native plants when trying to identify the plants she found growing on the acreage she shares with her husband in Montague.
In addition, Kathleen Perillo, co-founder of Guys Gulch Ecological Reserve, and GrizzlyCorps Fellow Sydney Pastore will share a presentation entitled, Plants and the Pollinators Who Love Them.
Guys Gulch Ecological Reserve, 30 minutes south of Yreka, is a 1000-acre parcel with active ecological restoration projects focused on fire resiliency and pollinator habitat. There, Sydney and Kathleen are part of a 109-acre Pollinator Habitat-Improvement Project, with funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and US Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with Clark College Native Plant Center and the Siskiyou Arboretum and Native Plant Nursery. In their presentation, they will discuss the specific plants that they are planting—and that you can plant, too!—and what pollinators make use of and rely on them.
Kathleen Perillo co-founded Guys Gulch Ecological Reserve in 2019. She is a faculty member at Clark College in Washington State and is excited to continue teaching in a land-based way to students of all ages at the Reserve. As a GrizzlyCorps Fellow at the Reserve, Sydney Pastore has been helping out with pollinator planting, forestry, and outreach.
Speaking of outreach…
Soon, on Saturdays starting April 18 through June 13, the Reserve will host the northernmost California Naturalist Course, with all instruction taking place in the field. California Naturalist is a 40-hour generalist naturalist certificate program, organized and accredited through the University of California system. The California Naturalist class at the Guys Gulch Ecological Reserve will focus on the Klamath Mountain region, part of the Klamath Knot—a biodiversity hotspot that has been proposed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Students will participate in the California Bumble Bee Atlas or the Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program, in addition to implementing a stewardship project of their choice on the Reserve or in the community. Field trips will focus on the unique geology and water resources in this region. Local experts will highlight their work in natural resource management and conservation, including a native plant propagation nursery, a beaver dam analogue installation, and the local prescribed burn association. This course is for anyone, of any age, who wants to learn more about our natural systems here in Northern California, connect with other naturalists, and steward the land. Come become a certified California Naturalist with us!
Please join us at our Chapter meeting on Thursday, April 16! You won’t want to miss learning about propagation, plantings, and restoration efforts in this special twofer presentation by our far northern sister orgs! Venue and time details can be found below. ~Shasta Chapter CNPS
The meeting venue
With sincere gratitude to McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, Shasta Chapter CNPS continues to meet in the new Turtle Bay Nursery Classroom, 1125 Arboretum Drive, Redding. There is lots of free, paved parking just steps away from the classroom building, and nice, curbed sidewalks. To get there, from North Market Street, turn east onto Arboretum Drive. Veer right at the first opportunity (so you don’t end up at Turtle Bay Elementary School!), and drive a short way to the “curvy” parking lot to the east of Arboretum Drive.
The Nursery Classroom is just inside a large wrought-iron double gate, which is just north of the entrance to the botanical gardens proper.
The meeting time
We will get the show on the road no later than 6 PM for our short Chapter meeting and announcements, followed by our speaker’s presentation. Or come as early as 5:30 PM to socialize and see what sort of pre-meeting activity or display we might have for you! Please join us!